What I've Been Up To

Usually I'm pretty good about updating, but truth be told I haven't been doing anything of interest lately. I've been busy. But I haven't been interesting. There is a difference.

About two weeks ago I stopped by the library to pick up my books on hold. These are just a few of what I checked out. The lady at the desk was pretty surprised. There are actually four books missing from this pile, though the other four weren't all craft related:

The sad part? I'm returning all of them without using them. I went through them. I perused the basics. I perused the patterns. I perused the techniques. Nothing I didn't already know. (Not to say that I'm a know-it-all.) But they aren't very useful to me. I will say that "Family Knits" and "Chic Knits for Stylish Babies" have some neat patterns, but I'm not interested in, (another), all cabled sweater or intarsia knits for a 12 month old. Too much work with too little wear in my opinion.

Though I haven't been using the books, I have actually been doing a bit of craft:

This is one of the needle cases I'm working on. I'm thinking of calling it, "Dog's Life". The wrong side is a dark brown corduroy. As you can see, the right side is a bunch of cute doggies. I still have the seaming and pockets to do though. I did finish the pink and brown one for one of my sock pals though and I'm quite pleased.

I've even been knitting, though when I timed myself to see how long it took to knit one row of the Tilted Duster skirt I was shocked to see it took 10 minutes! I still have another 53 rows to go, which means 530 minutes, which means approximately 8.8 hours of knitting - just the skirt!

There's something funky going on, on one of the increase sides. I'm hoping it will block out.

I've also started my Hogwarts Sock Swap socks. I started them two nights ago and worked quite a few rows watching "Vacancy" on DVD last night. I'm almost to the heel. Four more pattern rows and I should be there. They are awfully pretty and Shawn even said he wanted me to make him socks out of the yarn. Looks like I'll have to order more.

It's a pattern from "More Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch, though I don't think you can really see the pattern until it's on the foot. I have decided to make a fold over cuff with a picot edge. I think they will make a really cute pair of socks.

AJ's thoughts on:

cats: Pepper has disappeared. She's been missing since Wednesday. Dalton hasn't really gone out looking for her, so I can only take that as he's happy she's gone. (She really antagonizes him.) We've all gone out calling her name and looking for her, but to no avail. She's probably living it up at a neighbors, who don't have kids dressing her up or babies making her sticky. I hope she's alright.

rain: It, (finally), rained here in Southern California. And a lot. Oh it was nice. It started on Friday night. Shawn ended up falling asleep pretty early. So, Dalton and I kept each other company on the balcony watching the rain come done over the street lights and watching the short lived lightning. I love falling asleep to the rain. I'd really be ok with it raining on a daily basis. I love it! (Perfect hot chocolate and chili weather, which we did Friday.)

sewing machines: they suck! I snapped a needle the other night going over some corduroy. The good news was that when I went to JoAnn's to get new needles I learned that they offer sewing classes. They are $40 for four 1 hour classes and they work with you on the basics. Which I need. So I'm hoping to sign up in a week.

money: I never have enough! I blame the yarn stores, the bead shops, the miles of fabric...I blame artsy fartsy kind of stuff that I think I need to learn. I'm repainting the bedroom. Enough said.

Me and my damn ideas.

Hogwarts, Year 2 Questionnaire

Here's the answers to my Hogwarts Sock Swap questionnaire.

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Gryffindor.

2. Shoe size? Foot length? Foot circumference? Shoe Size- 9 to 9 1/2; Foot Length- 9 1/2; Foot Circumference- 9 1/2, (I have a wide foot and high instep)

3. List your three favorite sock yarns.
a. Koigu
b. Socks That Rock
c. Tofutsies

4. Would you like to try a new brand of sock yarn? If so, which brand? I'd like to try Vesper, Austerman Step or Louet.

5. Do you prefer variegated or solid sock yarn? Depending on the color, I tend to like solids more. But if it's a variegated combo that I love, then I'd go with that. (I love Koigu solids.)

6. What colors would you like to add to your sock yarn stash? My "wish" list: STR, "Spinel", "Hoofle Foofle", and "Minestone" colorways. As for solids, I like blue, black, brown, yellow, pink...just not purple or orange.

7. What kind of sock patterns do you gravitate toward? Lace? Ribbed? Fair Isle? I'm still a beginner, so I'm willing to try anything. I really want to try a Cookie A. pattern.

8. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, animals, etc.) None

9. Will your socks be exposed to cigarette smoke or animals as you knit them? No cigarette smoke. I do have two cats, but my knitting is always in plastic bags and then put in my knitting bag.

10. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Sure!

No More Weaving!!!!

That's right folks, no more weaving because I'm D.O.N.E. Oh yeah.

My Hogwarts Socks for my Gryffindor pal are finished:

Gryffindor Striped Socks

Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Cranberry and Sunshine

Needles: US 2 DPN's and US 4's for cast off, (I can't find my 3's)

Pattern: Basic 56 stitch sock; Toe Up with a Short Row Heel; Six Row Stripes; 2x2 Ribbing

Essentially that's it.

What's really bad is that I started the toe of another sock, (the Koigu Sunset Socks), on Friday night. I finished the foot and heel by Saturday night. I finished the leg and ribbing yesterday. I'm ready to cast on for the second sock today.

Or maybe I'll work on the Charlotte's Web.

Or Wicked.

Or the sleeve for Scout's sweater.

Or maybe, just maybe, I'll do something else.

Today was a busy day, most of it sitting in traffic while getting to or from the places I was going. My first stop was the LYS so I could knit my new pair of socks, (see below), and skein up the STR Pink Granite yarn. Doing 300 some odd yarns by hand isn't my idea of a good Saturday night. I really need a yarn swift. Badly.

After that I stopped by the bead shop and bought some more supplies for my shop. I only have four items up for sale at the moment, but I have oodles and oodles of things being listed soon.

Then I stopped by the r/c shop for Shawn. He's temporarily blind. He has a sty of some sort on the inside of his eyelid, (I attribute it to the fact that he very rarely changes his contacts and though his Dr. said it's ok to wear them at night, he always wears them and doesn't let his eyes rest...This is the second time this has happened.) It's caused him to be extremely sensitive to the light, so he can't drive.

After getting home in the 103 degree heat, (and the pool still being shut down by the Health Department), I found a package of goodness waiting for me from my Hogwarts Sock Pal, Marie:

Here are my socks. I was in the Ravenclaw house and boy was I lucky with the colors! They are awesome!

But it doesn't stop there, Marie spoiled me even more with stitch markers, Crystal Palace size 0 DPN's, a little lamb candy dispenser, (that can also be a keychain), some Bertie's Botts Beans, some mints in a really cute container, a Ravenclaw keychain and a gray knitted bunny! I have been quite the lucky duck lately. I ♥ Marie! Thank you lady, you totally ROCK!

Tonight I spent some time working on my socks, but I also spent some time with these:

Chocolate Frosted Donettes. Right before dinner I was having a powerful chocolate craving. But not just any chocolate. I wanted chocolate donuts and chocolate ice cream. (I haven't had the ice cream. Yet.)

Every few rows I'd pop a donette and make progress with my new project. (I just had to, you understand.)

I'm a tease though. I'm not showing you, or telling you, what stitch I'm using for the instep. I will tell you though, that it looks great and I'm about 1/2 to the heel. These are going by quickly. I wish I could say the same for my pals Hogwarts socks. I guess that's what I get for not buying self striping yarn and knowing that I will hate myself once I get to the weaving. The deadline is coming up. I only have about 8 sets of 6 rows in changing colors. But the weaving. Oh the weaving.

I also started Wicked the other night, though I haven't done much more than 10 or 12 rows. I will say that I'm loving working with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. It's silky soft and I know this sweater will quickly become a favorite.

In other news...Dalton didn't come home yesterday. All day I went outside searching for him. I walked to all of his hiding spots. I called him. I yelled for him. Then finally I cried. Here's the thing about Dalton. I rescued him when he was about 7 weeks old when I still worked at the Vet. He had an upper respiratory infection and I nursed him back to health. He's been my best friend for the past 7 1/2 years. The other thing is that he's declawed. And while he can kick some serious cat ass, he can't defend himself from owls or coyotes. I don't see coyotes near here, though they are around, (they just don't come into our apartment complex). But I have seen owls and while Dalton is a good 20 lbs., and owl can easily carry 3x their own weight.

After hours of searching we heard some meowing in our neighbors storage. It turns out that they were out of town for the past week. They came home and their storage door was open, so they locked it. It wasn't until a few hours later that we realized that they locked Dalton inside.

So now he's home, safe and sound. And he got a good cuddling and lecture about not leaving for so long and hiding because I love him too much and could never replace him. That darn cat!

It's Been a Long While

By now, I'd usually have posted something about knitting. But, we have been quite busy. Not busy doing things that we want to do, rather things we need to do.

But I'll talk about the things that I want to do, before the things I've needed to do. First up are my Hogwarts Socks for my pal. This is what I'm getting myself into, just on the first sock:

This is what it should look like on the right side:

No, through the magic of computer technology, the ends have not been weaved in. Nonetheless, they will get done. (Eventually.) Especially since I have one more sock to go.

Two weeks ago I started the Rusted Root sweater. This is where I am now:

I tried it on last night, after putting the sleeves on scrap yarn and doing some heavy duty stitch holding. (29" circular needles do not fit over a 42" bust!) The 40-43 (size Large) fits wonderfully, if not just a tad too big. I'm sure once it's completely knit and blocked it will fit perfectly. I really am enjoying knitting from the top down and already am looking at knitting Zephyr Style's Wicked. I'm debating on what yarn to use and if I want to make the front pockets. They are cute, but quite inconvenient to knit. We shall see.

So, in other news. Last Thursday I had three doctors appointments to go to in the Valley. On the way home, at around 12 p.m., in around 95 degree, (if not hotter), weather, the car overheated on the freeway, about 3 miles away from our house. Not only did it overheat, the engine completely blew out. We are in the process of looking at used cars, but what a pain in the butt. We knew that it would happen soon. But it would have been nice to not get stuck on the freeway, (where there were no on ramps, off ramps or call boxes nearby, and I don't have a cell phone so go figure), with Scout after she just had 4 shots! Luckily, karma being my friend, a woman saw my car overheating and offered us a ride home so I could get the baby home and get the car towed. The piece of crap is sitting in the garage! Argh!

We named the kitten Pepper and she is a pip! She and Dalton are finally getting along, though Dalton puts her in her place. She loves to sleep in between the two body pillows that are on the bed, so we have to be careful when we lay down because she's still so small. But she's a lot of fun and loves yarn, just like me. Though I don't eat it. I smell it, I admit. But I don't smell it.

Jem is officially on summer break and officially driving me crazy. I suppose it doesn't help that we don't have a car that we can just get in and take off in. But he's really driving me nuts. I bought him a Paint by Numbers kit, thinking it would keep him busy with all the details. Oh no. He decided to just paint. Not by numbers. *sigh* Summer school starts next Monday, but they are not offering bus transportation from the house anymore. Normally he takes the bus that picks up right outside. But for summer school, they want us to take the kids to their homeschool and then they will bus the kids to the Academic Academy. (Which is pretty much the same distance as the other school.) Anyway, if we don't have a car by then I won't be able to take him. (It's too far to walk with the baby.)

Speaking of the baby:

Scout had her 6 month check up last week. Can you believe it? Almost 6 months! She now weighs 17 lbs. 2 oz. And is almost 26". She's laughing all the time, which if you check my Flickr accout, (on the right), you will see some great smiley pictures.

We've been swimming as much as possible, and even Shawn joined us. (He has the thing about public pools, I don't blame him.) Scout is a big fishy. She loves the water and her canopy boat. I can't wait to take her to the beach.

Right now her thing is sucking on her monkey toes:

I'm almost completely done with my UFO's, which is nice. Now I can start on some new stuff, like Wicked or Rhiannon by Cookie. Oh, and another Charlotte's Web for my neighbors 9 year old daughter. Who, by the way, I taught to knit. She's a crocheter and she's doing very well for learning how to knit, left handed too. (I am right handed, but she had a better go at it when she did it left handed.)

So that's what we've been doing. Oh and my swap. Go join my swap! It's gonna be uber fun. LOL. Uber!

What a weekend!

We've had a pretty good week since my last blog update.

Thursday and Friday, Shawn and I rented a couple movies and stayed home and cozied up on the couch to watch them. First we saw Turistas, which has made me pretty adamant that I will never, (ever), travel to Brazil, and then we saw Black Christmas, which convinced me that sororities really are evil. Both movies were cheesy, but good. Not the explicit gore and guts you'd get from an old "Halloween" or "Friday the Thirteenth", (which by the way, this Friday is Friday the Thirteenth, so beware).

Saturday we drove up to the zoo around noon and guess what the signs said: Parking Lots Full. We ended up having to drive back home. Normally the LA Zoo has a week of Easter activities around spring break. This year they only did the Easter stuff Friday-Sunday. So it was a no go. We are going this Saturday instead.

Since we didn't make the zoo, I headed over to the LYS earlier than expected so I could work on this:

That's right! They are Shawn's Stormy Socks. I finished the first one last night and cast on for the second one this morning. I still don't know what's up with the striping, but I am hoping I can get the second sock to stripe just as well. We shall see. But all in all, they are cool. Shawn tried it on and absolutely loves them. He was quite upset that there weren't two already. Talk about impatience! I swear!

Easter was really fun as well. I made some bunny cupcakes for Jem and the neighbor kids, (not that Shawn and I didn't eat like a dozen on our own or anything!):

Easter morning Jem went searching for his eggs. Out of 14 plastic filled eggs, he found 12. He needed help with 2. One of them got knocked over by Dalton's tail when he was laying on the couch. Jem made out like a bandit. He got a helicoptor set, froggy squirt toys, a load of candy, money, two pairs of jean shorts, and more I'm sure. Shawn got a 1/2 lb. box of his favorites chocolates from See's Candies and a card. Scout got a new dress and a blue and green musical dinosaur that she absolutely loves. She really loves music. My mom gave her a pink piggy bank and we both put some money in it for her as well. Me? Shawn said I could order some sock yarn, so I'm a happy woman! (Who wouldn't be?) But, I haven't decided on what I want yet. Maybe some Koigu? Or Socks that Rock? Or Lorna's Laces? I'd ♥ to order some yarn from Yarn Pirate but last week when she updated, she sold out as I was looking at the colors she had available. Literally sold out in like 5 minutes!

Anywhoo, we also took a few pictures, though I have to say I look pretty crappy after running in and out of the kitchen to make a turkey, (which my mom pretty much took over), and all the fixins. But I love this picture of us either way:

But my favorite is this one of Scout:

(You can check my flickr pictures for more pictures of Scout and the color version of this if you want to see the actual dress.)

In other news, I followed Abigail, (who is a GREAT secret pal, by the way), and joined the Hogwarts Sock Swap. I ♥ Harry Potter, though I will admit that I still haven't finished the last book. I'm maybe a 1/4 into it. (It's not my fault really, a friend of mine kinda ruined the story for me, so now I'm not as motivated to read it you know?) Anyway, I am in the Ravenclaw group and decided to post my swap questionnaire as well:

1.What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Ravenclaw

2. Shoe size? 9-9 1/2

3. Foot Length? 9 1/2

4. Foot Circumference? 9 1/2 (high instep)

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length: I mainly work with Clover bamboos, usually size 2 or 3.

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length? Sure, maybe Lantern Moon or Blue Sky Alpacas. Small size like 0's or 1's. Length doesn't matter.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference? Doesn't matter a whole lot to me!

8. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Yes

So that's about it. I'm happily knitting along and enjoying the change in seasons. And excited for another knit night this Friday night.